The GOP And The Torture Memos

One wonders why the Senate GOP is getting so pissy about releasing key documents relating to the Bush-Cheney torture program. You'd imagine they'd want to get as far away from the Bushies as possible at this point, rather than embracing what history will surely judge as one of the most shamefully lawless periods in US presidential history. Scott Horton reports that they are threatening to go nuclear on the Johnsen and Koh nominations if the DOJ continues its policy of transparency. But this is a no-brainer, right? Part of the point of the Johnsen nomination was clarity on torture. To save her nomination by promising secrecy over the Bush-Cheney torture record would be a total contradiction.

Obama was not elected in order to run interrogation the way John Cornyn would run interrogation. Release all the memos and the internal report on Yoo's and Bradbury's professionalism. The public has a right to know what was done; and the rule of law requires that serious evidence of potential official lawlessness be examined in full.